Josiah johnson



(No Model.)

J. JOHNSON.

KNITTING MACHINE. No. 564,886. Patented July 28, 1896.

I 3 in, I K a u I I a 1 2 H h TMHM W 1 F I 2 M L WMU |L||l& C m V M mUNITED STATES JOSIAH JOHNSON, OF LEICESTER, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR OFONE-HALF TO PAT ENT OFFICE.

JOHN ARTHUR ALLEN BARFOOT, OF SAME PLACE.

KNITTING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 564,886, dated July 28,1896.

Application filed April 6, 1896. Serial No. 586,376. (No model.)Patented in England November 3, 1894, No. 21,129, and in France November20,1895,N0. 251,862.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosIArg JOHNSON, foreman, a subject of the Queeri ofGreat Britain, residing at Canning Place, Leicester, England, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Knitting-Machines, (forwhich I have obtained Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 21,129, datedNovember 3, 1894, and in France, No. 251,862, dated November 20, 1895,)of which the following is a specification.

Heretofore various colored patterns have been produced in knittedfabrics bycausing (at each course of work) some of the needles only tobe brought into position to take thread and have work produced upon themwhile the other needles remain idle and out of work until at the next orsome subsequent course work is to be produced with a thread of adifferent color or material. Such colored patterns have been produced ina straight-bar-knitting machine having a fixed needle-bar, andtheneedles have been shifted endwise in grooves in the needle-bar by theaction upon them of a Jacquard barrel to put them into or out of actionat each course as the pattern required.

The object of my invention is to improve the construction of machinesfor producing colored patterns of the above kind in knitted work.

I employ a knitting-machine of the Cotton type (that is, a machine inwhich the needle-bar has a rising-and-falling as well as a to-and frohorizontal motion given to it,) and at each course of .work I causethose only of the needles which are to have work made upon them to befast with the needle-bar and be moved to and fro with it while the otherneedles are left at rest and out of action and have no work producedupon them. To control which needles shall thus be brought into work ateach course, I employ catches acted upon by a Jacquard barrel.

Figure 1 of the drawings annexed shows a vertical section of the m ainparts of a straightbar-knitting machine of the Cotton type arrangedaccording to my invention. Fig. 2 shows a modified arrangement of thecatches.

A is the needle-bar,carried by a vertical lever B, which at B is jointedto a horizontal F are the needles, each fixed in a separate bit or jackF, which can slide endwise in a-guide-groove in the back of theneedle-bar A.

G are lever -catches lying between the plates A and turning around awire at G. G are springs, one of which bears upon the horizontal arm ofeach lever G and tends to turn the lever into position for the lower endof its other arm to come below the end of the needle-bit F, a slot Abeing formed through the needle-bar for these arms of the catchlevers topass through.

Standing out from the front of the ends of the divisions of theneedle-bar are projecting arms A These have vertical slots cut in themin which are received bearings H for the axis of a barrel or drum H. Theslots are of greater height than the bearings, so that the bearings canbe moved up and down within them.

The horizontal arms of the lever-catches G are made to extend forward tocome above the top of the barrel and their ends G are bent downward in avertical direction, as shown.

Rows of holes are formed in the barrel at I intervals apart and parallelwith its axis. The barrel has a step-by-step rotating motion given toit, so as to bring the rows of holes in succession below the ends G ofthe horizontal arms of the lever-catches G. When p a row of holes isbrought below the ends G and the barrel H is raised, the ends G of someof the lever-catches enter holes While the ends G of the remainder ofthe lever-catches have no holes opposite to them and are turned I ingbackward from its lower end. Whenthe Each needl'e bit has a projection Fextend- IOO needle-bar descends, these projections are brought below theends of narrow springblades I. There is one such spring-blade for eachneedle-bit. The blades are all carried at their rear ends by a bar I.This bar is carried by arms from ashaft 1 to which amokin g motion canbe given by other arms which descend from it and are acted on by cams onthe cam-shaft E.

When the needle-bar has descended to its lowest position, the shaft I isrocked and the forward ends of the spring blades I are brought above theprojections F at the back of the needle-bits and hold the needle-bitsdown at the time when the needle-bar again rises, unless any needle-bithas the lower end of its lever-catch G below it, in which case theneedle-bits are carried upward with the needlebar, the spring-catches Ithen yielding to allow the projections F to pass them.

movement given to it in the following manner: On the axis of the barrelis a ratchetwheel H with which a pawl K engages. The pawl is carried bya lever-arm K on a shaft K Other arms K descending from the shaft K areacted on by cams on the cam-shaft E. The cams are formed in such, mannerthat when the needle-bar has completed its rise and while the draw is.taking place the pawl is brought against one of the teeth of theratchet-wheel and turns the barrel a distance so as to move one row ofholes in the barrel from below the ends of the lever-catches G and bringthe next row of holes below them. Just before the needle-bar commencesto ascend the barrel is raised a distance, and thereby moved against theends of some of the horizontal arms of the lever-catches and causesthese catches. to release their hold upon other lever-catches, the ends.G of whose horizontal arms are opposite to holes in the barrel, remainunmoved andretain their hold of the needle-bits they work with, so thatwhen the needle-bar rises. these needles are carried upward along withit. The rest of the needles remain down, hanging onto the work, beingheld down by the spring-blades I. The needles carried upwith theneedle-bar then have a course of work made upon them in the ordi narymanner. Thread is laid along the several needles and formed into loopsbetween them by the sinkers. Afterward the needles are, carrieddownward, with the needle-bar by reason of a wire M, which is passedthrough the plates A, coming just above the top of the needle-bits. Whenthe points of the beards of the needles have descended. below the threadwhich lies above the. sinker-nibs, the beards are pressed against thefixed presser-bar P and closed against the needlestems until by the.downward movement of the needles the points of the beards. have enteredthe old loops. of work which were on the needle-stems and at the end ofthe downward movement, of the. needles.

-. it while the draw is taking place. rel is shown in this position inFig. 1,. The barrel H has a step-by-step turning p I is moved backward,so that the ends of the i spring-blades I, which it carries, are out ofj bits.

trated in Fig. 2.

As. the needles descend below the knocking-over bits Q these old loopsare cast off from the needles.

The barrel is raised at the proper time by pins H projecting downwardfrom its bearings, being act-ed on by arms L on shafts L, to which arocking motion is given byanother arm I. upon it being acted on by a camon the cam-shaft.

The cams are so shaped as to cause the arms L to lift the barrel adistance just before the needle-bar commences to rise, as aboveexplained, and then as the needle-bar rises to keep the barrel rising upwith the needle-bar almost to the end of its upward movement and thendescend out of the way sufficiently for it to become free from the endsof all the lever-catches, and it is then ready to again have a partialturn given to The bar- While the needle-bar is descending the ba the wayof the projections F of the needle.-

At the. end of the downward movement of the needle-bar all the needleshave again been brought into line and the bar I is again 7 movedforward, so as to bring the ends. ofthe spring-blades I again abovethese projections.

Two thread-layers V V are provided and brought intoaction alternately,two courses being first made with one thread-layer, then I the next twocourses. with the other threadlayer, and so on, as in an ordinarymachine for producing striped work, or single courses only might be madein succession with each thread-layer. Similarlythreeormorethreadlayersmight be used, butI prefer to use two, 5 as above described.

; W are the sinkers.

the needle-bits they work with, while the X is the fixed sinker-bar, theforward edge P of which forms the presser-bar, against which theneedle-beards. are pressed to close them at the proper time, and Q are.the ordinary knocking-over bits.

The means for giving motion to the sinkers and'to the thread-layers arenot shown in the drawings, as these are well known.

It is not essential that the catches. and Jacquard barrel should becarried. by the needlebar. They might be separate from it, asillns Inthis case the catches would serve to hold the needles down as theneedle-bar moved upward, while the remainder of the needles would becarried up to gether with the needle-bar by friction.

In Fig. 2 the catches are-shown as,,being formed of thin slides P, whichat one end are acted upon by a Jacquard barrel and. at the other end canbe brought above projections F which stand out from the needle-bits Theabove-described arrangementof mechanism is applicable whether bearded orlatch needles are used. If latch-needles are used, the needle-bar wouldonly require. to have an up-and-down motion given to it and not a.motion toward and away from a presser-bar.

What I claim is 1. A straight-bar-knitting machine having provisions invirtue of which the needle-bar has an up-and-down motion given toit,needles or jacks mounted in guides on the needle-bar, and instrumentsupon the needle-bar by which those needles only upon which work is to bemade at any one course are locked to the needle-bar and move with itwhile the re mainder of the needles are not locked to the needle -barand remain out of action substantially as described.

2. In a straight-bar-knitting machine the combination of the fixedpresser-bar, the needle-bar having an up-and-down and a horizontalto-and-fro movement, the needles the catches which look the needles tothe needlebar when work is to be made upon them and means forcontrolling which needles shall or shall not be locked to the needle-barsubstantially as described.

3. In a straight-bar-knitting machine the combination of the fixedresser-bar, the needle-bar having an up-and-down and a horizontalto-and-fro movement, the needles which can either move or not move withthe needlebar, the catches which govern whether the needles shall orshall not partake of all the needle-bars movements and the Jacquardbarrel acting on the catches substantially as described.

4. In a straight-bar-knitting machine the combination of the fixedpresser-bar, the needle-bar having an up-and-down and horizontalto-and-fro movement, the needles, the catches the Jacquard barrel whichcontrols whether the needles shall or shall not be locked to theneedle-bar and whose axes can slide in grooves or guides on theneedle-bar so that in one direction of theIneedle-bars movement theJacquard barrel is carried to and fro with it and in the other directioncan be moved independently of the needle-bars substantially asdescribed.

5. In a straight-bar-knitting machine the combination of the fixedpresser-bar, the needle-barhaving an up-and-down and a horizontalto-and-fro movement, the needles capable of sliding endwise in groovesin the needlebar, the catches for locking the needles to the needle-bar,the Jacquard barrel for acting on these catches and means for moving theJacquard barrel toward and away from the tail ends of the catchessubstantially as described.

6. In a straight-bar-knitting machine the combination of the fixedpresser-bar, the needle-bar having an up-and-down and a horizontalto-and-fro movement, the needles capable of sliding endwise in groovesin the needlebar and catches for controlling whether the needles shallor shall not move along with the needle-bar substantially as described.

JOSIAH JOHNSON. Witnesses:

ALBERT CHAMBERLAIN, GRACE E. ll/IOORE.

